The prior art discloses construction measuring appliances comprising a sighting device, with the aid of which a spatial point, e.g. a corner point of a space, is sighted manually and the sighting direction is then changed manually to a next spatial point to be measured, e.g. a further corner point.
DE 196 48 626 for example discloses a method and an apparatus for area measurement with a laser distance measuring device having a laser transmitter and a laser receiver. The laser distance measuring device is mounted on a stand. The apparatus furthermore comprises a tilting and rotating device for alignment and direction measurement, a telescopic sight and also an electronic evaluation unit for angle data acquisition, distance data acquisition and data transfer to a computer. For measuring a space, the appliance is positioned at a central location in the space, from which all spatial and/or area corner points to be detected can be sighted and impinged upon by the laser beam. In accordance with the disclosure of DE 196 48 626, the spatial points to be measured are in this case each sighted individually, if appropriate—in the case of relatively large distance—with the observation being supported by means of a telescopic sight. An automated sequential measurement of a plurality of spatial points, comparable to a scan, for example, or functionalities that can be initiated for user-defined changes between three- and two-dimensional representations of measured spatial regions are not disclosed in DE 196 48 626.
A similar apparatus and associated measurement method are disclosed in DE 44 43 413, the supplementary published patent application DE 195 45 589 and WO 96/18083, which claims the priority of DE 44 43 413. They describe a method and an apparatus for measuring and marking on distant lines, areas or in at least partly closed spaces. One or a plurality of relevant spatial points are measured according to in each case two solid angles and the distance relative to a reference location by means of a laser distance measuring appliance mounted in a cardan-type fashion. The laser distance measuring appliance is pivotable about two mutually perpendicular axes equipped with goniometers. In accordance with one embodiment described in said documents, spatial points to be measured are headed for manually and marking points are calculated from the measurement data, on the basis of a predefined relative relation between measurement and marking, said marking points then being moved to automatically by the measuring and marking apparatus.
However, this document also does not disclose an automated sequential measurement of a plurality of spatial points, comparable to a scan, for example, or functionalities that can be initiated for user-defined changes between three- and two-dimensional representations of measured spatial regions.
EP 1 733 185 discloses an apparatus and a method whereby specifically edges on a polygonal, otherwise planar surface are intended to be measured precisely. However, an automated sequential measurement of a plurality of spatial points or functionalities that can be initiated for user-defined changes between three- and two-dimensional representations of measured spatial regions are not disclosed.